I mostly believed Christianity briefly recently... you know what hurt the most?

[znk666]

It wasn't the feeling of being under control.

It wasn't the fear of Hell (I understood that whether you go or not is kinda up to you).

It wasn't the bad things that God had supposedly done, etc.

Hi hoppimike, welcome to the forum, I'm a Speedy fan too.
I find your statement "God had supposedly done," quite curious for an atheist to make. Could you explain?

Those all bothered me but no. What bothered me most of all to the point where I felt really unhappy, confused and distressed was the thought of all the people that God was supposedly allowing to burn for eternity in Hell. I actually prayed for the first time since an early teen as far as I remember, and I mostly prayed for forgiveness for the people in Hell!

Again a curious statement, "I prayed for," coming from an atheist. Could you explain?

Take care cool Earthly peeps!

Mike

The title itself says that this was before he became an atheist.

Our loving God does not make people suffer in hell for eternity, people choosing to reject the salvation by grace and through forgiveness, all in the belief in Christ as their savior, will be in hell. People have a free choice, God doesn't make people go to heaven any more than He makes them go to hell. No one can earn their way into heaven nor in hell, it's really not about the way you live your life, it's about the choice you make to correct your life, or not to correct your life. All sin and fall short of God's will we're all in the same frying pan, those who accept Christ and live their lives to honor Him escape the frying pan, those who do not accept Him, well, they escape the frying pan only to wind-up in the fire.
There is a hell because God's righteousness demands equal justice, without equal justice God would be playing favorites, and true justice does not play favorites.

A just God/gods/Goddess would recognize that no one deserves to be eternally roasted in a pit of hot oil and lava.
Also a God/gods/Goddess that demands from us to worship him/her/them or we'll burn in hell no matter how good or bad we were is also disgusting.